The Sacrifice
Andrei Tarkovsky
1986 | 149 min | Colour & B/W | DCP

"Tarkovsky’s final film is also one of his most overtly theatrical, a chamber drama drawn in characteristically virtuoso long takes. A philosopher celebrates his birthday by planting a tree with his young son on an otherwise barren landscape. Disgusted with modernity, he finds his calling after reports of an impending nuclear war, the reality of which remains occluded in dream. A yin-yang symbol emblazoned on the philosopher’s robe indicates the many structuring dualities of the film: personal crisis and public catastrophe, Christian atonement and pagan rites, redemption and madness, the hopefulness of a closing tribute to Tarkovsky’s son and the irrevocable vision of a life in flames. The film’s setting (the Baltic island of Gotland), cinematographer (Sven Nykvist), and leading actor (Erland Josephson) were all borrowed from Ingmar Bergman, but the central dwelling is of a piece with the many Russian dachas in Tarkovsky’s work – a final reconstruction pitched on the brink of destruction." – Harvard Film Archive

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Part of our season on Andrei Tarkovsky